Health care-associated infection point prevalence survey protocol: implementation manual for limited-resource settings

Overview

Health care-associated infections (HAIs) represent a significant threat to patient safety, and effective surveillance is essential for infection prevention and control (IPC), particularly in settings where resources and surveillance capacity are limited. This practical WHO manual provides step-by-step guidance for planning, implementing, analysing and reporting HAI point prevalence surveys (PPS) in acute care facilities. It provides standardized methods, data collection tools, case definitions and quality assurance processes to support consistent implementation at facility, national and subnational levels. The manual supports health care facilities and national IPC programmes in measuring HAI prevalence, assessing antimicrobial use and characterizing pathogens causing infections, including antimicrobial resistance data when available. It covers both facility-led and nationally coordinated surveys and provides guidance on eligibility, data collection and management, analysis and interpretation, reporting, communication and monitoring. By strengthening capacity to systematically collect, analyse, interpret and use actionable HAI surveillance data, the protocol supports IPC improvement and informed priority-setting at facility and national levels.